Anti-Centrist

12.18.11

How 'Americans Elect' Kills Democracy

Ramin Talaie, Bloomberg / Getty Images

High-profile bipartisans are in love with Americans Elect, a centrist third-party group getting on the ballot next November, but Democrats are fretting. They should stop worrying, writes New York's Jonathan Chait, because Americans Elect probably won't hurt Obama. But it will hurt democrac. "The main impact of a third party candidacy is to harm the larger of the two parties that most closely agrees with you. The result is to increase the chances of a candidate who represents a minority faction winning." Americans who hate the hegemony of the two-party system "should be working to change it rather than make it work even worse than it already does."